Dundead: Nadja

Here is a new restoration of an under-seen 90s black and white vampire curiosity, with an interesting connection to the great David Lynch. Lynch had helped writer director Michael Almereyda raise funding for the film, but two days before shooting was due to begin, the funders withdrew their support. Lynch stepped in and financed the entire film himself, while also appearing on screen in a cameo.  

Michael Almereyda had been struggling to find funding with other projects before he decided to turn his hand to horror. Inspired by Andre Breton’s 1928 book of the same name, Almereyda wanted to make a vampire film set in 90s New York. Steeping himself in the world of vampire novels and films, his approach was to at once pay homage to the classics of the genre while establishing his own voice and tone. 

Elina Löwensohn plays the titular Nadja, the achingly cool lesbian daughter of Dracula who wanders the streets of Manhattan looking for victims and lovers, while Peter Fonda plays this universe’s Van Helsing. The high-contrast black and white 35mm photography is stunning, and Almereyda also films some scenes on Pixelvision video, giving those sequences a hallucinatory, underground feeling.

With a cool soundtrack including My Bloody Valentine and Portishead, it’s a genuinely off-kilter film and one that is a clear influence on Ana Lily Amirpour’s 2014 gem A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.